Named in honor of Michael Collins (b. 1930), U.S. astronaut. In
1966 he served as pilot of the Gemini 10 mission. In 1969 he was assigned
to Apollo 11 as the command-module pilot. While Armstrong and Aldrin took
their first walk on the lunar surface, Collins flew a lonely lifeguard
assignment for more than 24 hours, waiting for them to launch their
lunar craft and rejoin him in lunar orbit. This minor planet commemorates
the thirtieth anniversary of the first manned lunar-landing mission.
Name suggested by J. Tichá, M. Tichý and Z. Moravec, who observed this minor
planet at its 1995 opposition, just prior to numbering.